We Didn’t Like: The Phone Calls
As fast-paced and action-packed a series as it is, however, Edgerunner relies an awful lot on the fact that its characters can ring each other up through their cybernetic implants to have private conversations, whether just to chat in downtime or to keep communication secret on missions. A lot of this can lead to info-dump-y conversations where characters are doing little than standing around as their eyes flash, but it’s also an example of the rare time the series gets a little too stylish for its own good.
Most calls in Edgerunners borrow a motif from Cyberpunk 2077, where an in-universe holographic rendition of the conversation plays out by a character’s head, text rolling along on screen in small floating boxes. In these moments, if you’re watching Edgerunners in Japanese, they’re not subtitled—relying on you to instead squint and follow along with these small boxes of neon-hued text that are much less legible, and often also include corrupted text or repeated words that don’t necessarily match what’s being said—or are sometimes inverted so they’re facing the character rather than the audience. Stylish? Yes. A glaring accessibility issue that could’ve been solved by just still subtitling the dialogue too? Absolutely.
